Abandonware DOS title

The best text-based games

  1. abandonware
  2. text-based
  3. 236 games found
In the past, lots of games used ASCII characters (text) to represent the game world. These text-only video games may seem primitive and outdated and, in fact, the genre almost died with the fast evolving graphics of modern games.
A few genres traditionally linked to the beautiful world of ascii characters still survives: roguelikes (nethack, angband, etc.) and interactive fiction, for example.

Most popular text-based games

Norton Commander 5.5
Norton Commander 5.5
applicationDOS
Borland Turbo Basic 1.0
Borland Turbo Basic 1.0
applicationDOS
Zork I: The Great Underground Empire
Zork I: The Great Underground Empire
adventureDOS

Text-based games

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  • qbasic71-01
    QBASIC
    DOS19914.5/5 Microsoft
  • rawcopy-01
    Rawcopy
    DOS19924.5/5
  • starfleet2-krellan-01
    Star Fleet 2: Krellan Commander
    DOS19894.5/5 Interstel Corporation
  • borland-turbo-pascal-1-01
    Borland Turbo Pascal 1.0
    DOS19834.4/5 Borland Software Corporation
  • alice-pascal-01
    Alice: The Personal Pascal
    DOS19854.4/5
  • lha-1
    LHA
    DOS19884.4/5
  • ibm-visicalc-1-01
    VisiCalc 1.0
    DOS1979freeware4.4/5 Software Arts
  • dos-navigator-1-01
    DOS Navigator v 1.5
    DOS1991freeware4.3/5
  • football-fanatic-05
    Football Fanatic
    DOS1998freeware4.3/5
  • norton-editor2-01
    Norton Editor 2
    DOS19904.3/5 Peter Norton Computing
  • rogue-1
    Rogue
    Windows XP/98/95DOSLinuxMac19844.3/5 Artificial Intelligence Design

    Rogue is one of the first RPGs in the history of video gaming. It's a text-based dungeon crawler in which you have to fight your way in the dungeon to recover the Amulet of Yendor. Rogue became popular around 1980 on mainframes and later ported to various platforms, including DOS in 1984. Rogue is simply the father of all the roguelike games that c...

  • borland-c1-03
    Borland Turbo C v1
    DOS19874.3/5 Borland Software Corporation
  • crime-and-punishment-05
    Crime and Punishment
    DOS19844.3/5 Mindscape
  • gwbasic-03
    GW-BASIC 3
    DOS19884.3/5 Microsoft
  • tomenet-04
    TomeNET
    Windows XP/98/95Linux2003freeware4.3/5
  • sleuth-1
    Sleuth: A Murder Mystery
    DOS1983freeware4.2/5 Norland Software
  • arj-1
    Arj
    DOS19904.2/5
  • nortoncommander-5
    Norton Commander 5.5
    DOS19984.2/5 Peter Norton Computing

    Norton Commander was one of the most popular file manager applications ever released for MS DOS. Its clever side-by-side windows interface and the ease of use allowed DOS users to copy, delete, move and preview any kind of file without the hassle of typing every command by hand. Norton Commander was first released in 1986, but the latest and final ...

  • castle-adventure-04
    Castle Adventure
    DOS1984freeware4.2/5
  • wordstar4-01
    Wordstar 4
    DOS19864.2/5 MicroPro International
  • zork2-2
    Zork II: The Wizard of Frobozz
    DOS19834.2/5 Infocom
  • slashem-vampire-03
    Slash'Em
    Windows XP/98/95Linux1997freeware4.2/5
  • zzt-2
    ZZT
    DOS1991freeware4.2/5 Epic MegaGames
  • dosbox-1
    DOSBox
    Windows XP/98/95Linux2002freeware4.2/5
  • trinity-01
    Trinity
    DOS19864.2/5 Infocom
  • zork1-2
    Zork I: The Great Underground Empire
    DOS19824.2/5 Infocom

    Zork is one of the most popular text-adventures and one of the first interactive fiction games ever created. The first Zork was developed in the seventies and ported on various platform by Infocom in the early 80s. Infocom was one of the most prolific developers of text-adventures for home computers and created memorable interactive fiction ga...

  • thepatcher-1
    The patcher 6.1
    DOS19934.2/5
  • dragon-world-01
    Dragon World
    DOS19844.2/5 Telarium
  • js-shogun-02
    James Clavell's Shogun
    DOS19894.2/5 Infocom
  • jewels-of-darkness-06
    Jewels of Darkness
    DOS19864.2/5 Level 9 Computing
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